To expect a 9 yo and almost 8yo to be able to get dressed?

[Twattyzombiebollocks]

I've just sent my kids upstairs to get dressed as I'm downstairs with baby. Ds is 9.5, dd will be 8 in a couple of months. Dd didn't even get off the sofa without first giving me a list of about 5 reasons why she needed me to come and help her to get dressed. She has a wardrobe full of jeans and tee shirts/tops and a drawer full of pants vests and socks. Ds has just come downstairs 20 minutes later to tell me that he can't find any clean pants (he has a drawer full, I know because I put them in there yesterday, and it's the same drawer as they are always in)
Am I being unreasonable to think that two intelligent and nt children should be able to go to their rooms, open their wardrobes and select a pair of jeans and a Tshirt from the selection available, and underwear from their drawers? It's the same every morning, and it's starting to drive me mad. All they want to do is lie on the sofa and play with their iPods. Every single day this holiday I have had to remove/banthe iPods at some point in the day as asking them to do anything that requires putting the iPods down results in melodramatic sighing and strops. I have zero tolerance for this.

now i have sympathy for your situation OP. I had been training my DD to select and dress herself from when she was 5. I recently found out that her dad had been going behind my back and laying out her clothes when he wasnt here and dressing her when he was. he says that not helping her is neglect

she cant pick herself now and she is 9. i am beyond furious with him.

BUT he is so lovley and loving and caring i can forgive him

I wouldn't mind but I know my daughter is more than capable of choosing her outfit, if you take her shopping she can pick an outfit down to matching underwear and accessories. She just doesn't want to at home (and I don't for a minute think it's the baby, she's always been an awkward sod about clothes)
My son on the other hand (like his father) would wear a bin bag if it was hanging in his wardrobe.

When I do the laundry I use large clear food bags to bag up folded full outfits so she just picks a bag out of the draw on a morning

This is SUCH a good idea.

Mine aren't allowed downstairs or breakfast until dressed. Got fed up of asking five times

Attention seeking for sure.

ps: when you mentioned them having drawers stuffed with clothes I wondered if they had too many clothes. Overwhelmed by choice. Just a thought.

What you need to do is insist on helping them, they are far to young to choose and dress themselves so you simply must take them up and do it...this seems to have worked with my 3 and 6 year old who do the opposite of whatever I suggest and then declare they can do it on their own and run off trying to be first to prove me wrong!

Reverse psychology would work on my daughter perhaps but not on my son, he would quite literally allow me to dress him head to toe like the last emperor if it meant he didnt have to do it himself. He tried to tell me he didn't know how to pour milk on his wetabix the other day. Yeah right. You can build entire cities on mine craft and name every species of dinosaur that ever lived, yet you can't pour milk on your breakfast? Pull the other one it's got bells on